If we look for people who want to change the world, we will find many of them, but if we will check how many of them actually put their ideas in action are few. Building on experiences and knowledge from the field of art and theater as a media we designed ARTrepreneuership Project to equip youth entrepreneurs with skills and competences, which they need to succeed, as well as to empower them to make their ideas happen.

Entrepreneurship is way to responding economic challenges, as well as civic engagement and participation. It’s a prerequisite to a smart society. At the same time we often see great ideas taking the back seat because their creators are afraid of failure and unknown. Many see entrepreneurship only as business and that’s why never make their ideas happen. “Ideas are easy. Implementation is ART” – most of young entrepreneurs admit.

The project ARTrepreneurship was a sequence of various local and international trainings organized by SEAL CYPRUS to promote Entrepreneurship among the youth. The partners were chosen based on their aspiration to become more efficient in supporting their target groups; to guide, support and inspire young people in their entrepreneurial ideas.

In February 2016, 4.381 million young persons (under 25) were unemployed in the EU-28. High youth unemployment rates do reflect the difficulties faced by young people in finding jobs, especially females and youth with disabilities.

According to the DG for Enterprise and Industry there is a lesser appetite for entrepreneurship in Europe compared with our main competitors. Only 37% of the EU citizens prefer to be self-employed or an entrepreneur to being an employee (51% in USA and 56% in China).

With ARTrepreneurship the partners were seeking to address the issue of Youth Unemployment and to promote Entrepreneurship Education as a way out of it.

OVERALL GOAL

To bring together young entrepreneurs, youth leaders and youth workers from European organizations with main objective to equip young people with key skills, competencies and values in order to succeed in entrepreneurial activities with the use of arts.

OBJECTIVES

Promote entrepreneurship
Suggest a holistic approach to entrepreneurship
Empower youth to address important issues in their communities with entrepreneurial solutions, to turn their ideas in action
Equip young entrepreneurs, youth leaders and youth workers with key skills and competences to succeed in entrepreneurship and
Create sustainable network of young entrepreneurs, professionals, youth leaders, youth workers to work on the topic of entrepreneurship, which may further result in strategic partnership projects between partner organisations.
Inspire participants by creating role models of successful entrepreneurs through non formal education methods
Introduce participants to various entrepreneurial models and values
To share national practices in entrepreneurship, as well as challenges local communities face to address them with creative solutions
To offer innovative methodology based on art ant theater techniques to develop an entrepreneurial idea through usage of out-of-box thinking
Involve female entrepreneurs
Introduce participants to funding opportunities, offered by Erasmus+ and European networks for entrepreneurs
RESULTS AND IMPACT

The participants improved their skills and competencies certified with Youthpass, the European Certificate of non– formal education.

The training developed and broadened the understanding of entrepreneurship, its dimensions and relations with the labour market. The participants develop their readiness to support their organisations in addressing unemployment and promoting entrepreneurship.

The presence of 5 people with disabilities in this training had an enormous impact on the participants and will empower many young people.

The project ARTrepreneurship is expected to have an important impact beyond the participants. Through their involvement, the people involved in all the phases either as project managers, staff members, board members or volunteers developed a wide range of leadership and management skills.

Partner organisations had the opportunity to extend the international dimension of their work, to learn about non-formal methods of entrepreneurial education and to strengthen their relationships with their stakeholders. The project provided an opportunity to establish sustainable partnerships for further cooperation and projects.

As a result of this project, the participants and their organisations are now more prepared to encourage entrepreneurship among youth in an efficient way, as well as to organise quality projects within the Erasmus+ Program of the European Union and beyond.

In the long run the project will benefit the communities of the partners as well as the international community with the implementation of transnational initiatives based on the network of organisations established during the project.